Children
of Sarah Ann Gordon and William Moir were:

Moir Family History

Sarah Ann was known
to her Australian siblings as Sarah and to her New Zealand
family as Ann which is how her name appears on her marble
and pewter lettered tombstone in Te Arai Cemetery. Ann
was also bestowed by her parents Robert (ca. 1886-1863)
and Ann Gordon (1795-1868) as a second given name upon
all her sisters excepting Maria Matilda whose Matilda
came from the name of the miltary transport vessel on
which she was born during her parents voyage to Australia
in 1817. Sarah Ann spent the last three decades of her
life residing in the district and township of Mangawhai -
spelt as "Mangawai" before it reverted to the original
Maori spelling. It is located on the east coast of the
North Island of New Zealand about 60 kilometres south
of the city of Whangarei on a latitude approximately
the same as the Australian New South Wales / Victoria
border city of Albury.

Sarah Ann had six sons. Her official death record
did not list their names - only their respective ages
at the time of her death. In addition the NZ death indexes
have a daughter Jacqueline who did not survive her birth
year of 1863. In respect of her 1847 marriage to William
Moir his army service record only gave the name of his
spouse as "Anne". Left blank was the section on the form
providing for the entry of the name of a former husband
of a spouse thereby implying Sarah Ann had no former
husband. Also implying Sarah Ann had no former marriage
is a 2 Jan 1845 letter written by her mother Ann Gordon
which stated at that time Sarah was living with her in
Maitland, NSW. No notice of her 18 Sep 1847 Auckland
marriage to William Moir appeared in either
The Maitland Mercury newspaper or Auckland's
The New Zealander newspaper through to the end of
Dec. 1847. For the first half of 1847 William Moir was
stationed in NSW at Parramatta where his regiment's
head quarters depot was located. As at that time there
was no detachment of the 58th stationed in the Newcastle
area where Sarah Ann's parents resided it seems likely
he and Sarah would have first met at Parramatta or in
Sydney. The 58th regiment pay lists and muster rolls
recorded that William left NSW on the 12 June 1847 to
return to NZ where according to his record of service
particulars he arrived on 1 July. Perhaps before
departing NSW he became engaged to Sarah Ann, or he
proposed by mail not long after returning to Auckland,
and she moved there to be married by the Rev. Thomas
Buddle in the Wesleyan Church on 18th September that
year. There are no indexed birth records in NZ for
their first five sons. The only newspaper birth notice
noted was for the birth of second son Robert Henry on
12 Jan 1851. However it is possible the first five
births may have been recorded in the 58th Reg't birth
records currently held by the Family Records Centre
in London.
It has been
said that Sarah Ann was once lady-in-waiting to Lady
Eliza Lucy Grey, the daughter of Sir Richard Spencer,
and wife of the Governor of New Zealand Sir George Grey.
This claim sources to a 1905 born great granddaughter
of Sarah Ann's half-sister Letitia Ann Garmonsway.
No information is available today of any record on
which the claim could have been based such as a newspaper
article etc. The claimed role is also unknown of today
(2001) by Sarah Ann's direct descendants. This
compiler considers it has no validity. For it to have
been the case it would clearly have been necessary for
Sarah Ann to have held the lady-in-waiting position
sometime during the eight year period beginning 14
November 1845 when Sir George Grey, who from 1841
had been the Governor of South Australia, arrived in
New Zealand to take up the post of Governor, and ended
December 1853 when Lady Grey departed New Zealand never
to return. Lady Grey subsequently separated from her
husband in South Africa in 1860 prior to the commencement
of Sir George's second term as the Governor of NZ in
1861 and thereafter lived in London. During the last
last six years of Lady Grey's total of eight years
in NZ Sarah Ann was suitably located in proximity
to Government House which was then in Auckland where
the 58th regiment headquarters depot was located,
and from 1848 as the wife of an army officer,
although her husband had taken the less socially
acceptable path of rising from the ranks after
enlistment in 1831 as a private instead of purchasing
his commission and his officer rank of Quarter
Master was the most junior of the officer ranks
traditionally filled by one elevated from the ranks,
it is possible Sarah Ann may have had the requisite
social standing for such a position. However it
seems to this compiler the role of lady-in-waiting
to the wife of the Governor of the Crown colony
would have been held by a widow or a single woman
rather than one who actually had three pregnancies
and births during the six year period! It would
also seem there would have been available to the
Greys' more socially qualified candidates residing
in Auckland as well as from Sir George's previous
4½ year term as the Governor of South
Australia. Due to a complete lack of any supporting
evidence and doubt Sarah Ann as a daughter of an
ordinary private foot soldier and wife of the
regiment's most junior officer would have had
the requisite social standing, commonsense suggests
the Garmonsway line descendant originally responsible
for the lady-in-waiting role assertion was in
error.
Incorrect
information regarding William Moir was published in
1975 in a book titled The Rock and the Sky.
It stated William Moir of Mangawhai arrived in New
Zealand on 18 Jun 1859 from Kelvingrove, Glasgow. In
fact the 18 June 1859 date was the date of his 380
acre land grant at Mangawhai River and Kelvin Grove
the name he gave to that farm situated near Te Arai!
It is understood from family sources he named the
property after a place named Kelvin Grove where he may
have last lived before leaving Scotland for England
(perhaps the Glasgow suburb of that name). Secondly
the book was quite vague about William's early N.Z.
military service - merely suggesting he may have been
a Sergeant in the regular army without giving the
regiment's name. The name of his regiment is clearly
established from his death record and from several other
records to have been the 58th Rutlandshire Regiment of
Foot and a signed copy of his military service history,
written by William Moir in the early 1850s, has been
in the possession of the Moir family ever since. He
was actually the Sergeant-Major of his regiment (its'
senior non-commissioned officer) when he arrived in NZ
and for the last decade of his period on active duty
with the regiment in NZ a commissioned officer holding
the rank of Quarter Master !
The book reference was also amazingly
astray in respect of another important aspect of Moir
family history. It stated quote: "Captain Moir went to
Canada and all trace of him was lost" 8.
This inferred lack of knowledge by his N.Z. family
of when and where he died is not confirmed by surviving
family letters or public records in N.Z. and Canada.
A 1902 NZ estate intestacy administration
court lodgement by the NZ
Public Trustee, in respect of a ¼ acre block
of land in NZ valued at £15 not bequeathed by a
will, gave his place of death as Toronto, Canada
and the date as 1 Dec 18815.
This same date was officially registered in Toronto
at the time of his death. Also confirming that the
details of his death in Toronto were known to his
NZ family is a surviving 18 Dec 1882 letter from his
widow Sarah Ann to her sister Letitia Garmonsway,
which stated in reference to the six months earlier
death of their sister Maria Fulford from cancer, quote:
"I had not time to get over the sad death of my
husband and the way in which his friends treated me".
The letter went on to state in relation to her widow's
army pension entitlement, for which it said an
application had been forwarded by a Colonel Hewitson
to the Ministry of War on her behalf, - "I have now
been twelve months when I should have been receiving
some" 9.
The Toronto death registration for which the
informant was his doctor P. C. Costantinides did not
give a residential street address and made no mention
of a wife or children. It gave his age as 70, place
of birth as Aberdeen, Scotland, that he was of
Presbyterian denomination and his occupation was a
Captain in Her Majesty's 58th Regiment. It stated he
died of general paralysis lasting between four and
five months. A New Zealand family legend is he died as
a result of an accident whilst visiting a brother in
Canada. However as the catalyst for the onset of the
general paralysis was not given in the death record
other causes such as stroke are possible. The death
registration contained no other information 6.
British Army Paymaster General pay sheets recorded
his last NZ address for pay purposes was Te Arai
which was where his farm was located and from
2 April 1878 it became Toronto, Upper Canada,
indicating he must have left NZ in late 1877. Thus he
resided in Canada for the four years preceeding his
death 21.

Scottish ancestry - emigration to
Canada

William Moir's ancestors in Aberdeenshire in Scotland
were mostly millers. No evidence has been noted they
were landowners. A professional researcher in Scotland
concluded they were most likely sub-tenants who would
have worked in corn mills. The line traces back to
Alexander Moir born about 1660 at Milne of Portsdown
near Inverurie located about 20 kilometers NW of Aberdeen.
His son Alexander was born about 1692 at Little Milne
of Bourtie, just north-east of Inverurie, and had six
known children. One was George who was baptised on
8 June 1736 at Bourtie. George had nine known children
of whom William Moir's father James was born in
June 1776 at Milltown of Durno, Chapel of Garioch,
just NW of Inverurie.
The
record of the marriage of James in Aberdeen to Ann Thaw
in 1805 gave his occupation as flaxdresser - an
occupation involved in paper-making so he likely worked
in a paper mill. James Moir and Ann Thaw had seven
known children 17,
24.
Thirty years later in 1835 James and three of his seven
children (not including William) emigrated to Canada.
The ship's list gave his occupation as a gentleman and
that of son James Jr. as farmer. The two others in the
party were daughters Margaret and Ann (in 1846 a sister
Mary, and a widowed sister Jacqueline who had married
in Aberdeen in 1831 joined the others in Ontario). The
party left Aberdeen on 3 April 1835 on the Brilliant
arriving at New York on the 30th May. Their destination
in Ontario was the Bon Accord settlement in Nichol
Township, Wellington County where the new settlers
mostly came from Aberdeen - Bon Accord being
the moto on the Aberdeen coat of arms and the watchword
used by the Aberdonians whilst aiding Robert Bruce
in his battles with the English. The
Bon Accord settlement name no longer exists. Today
the nearest town is Elora. James Jr. (1815-1906)
farmed in Bon Accord for most of his life. He married
and had a family of seven children. His four sisters
who came to Canada all married and lived in nearby
towns 24.
A Canadian family legend,
derived from a family history note written in 1952, is that
William ran away from home in Aberdeenshire when young and
joined the army. William's nephew Lt. Colonel William Moir Gartshore
who was born in 1853 and would have met William in Canada,
when writing of William in a book published in 1930 titled
Leaves from a Lifetime, wrote that "After his family
had grown up and left the parental home, he came to Canada,
and his later days he spent in Toronto, with his sister,
Mrs. John Gartshore who until then had not seen him for
fifty years." 25,
29. The
sister with whom William spent his last years in Canada was
Margaret Panton Moir (1809-1899). She married Scottish
born John Gartshore
(1810-1873) in Fergus in 1836 where he built the first
mill. 26

The Gartshore's moved to Dundas in 1837 where he
established an iron foundry. As late as 1998 some remnants
of his last foundary building remained in Hatt Street.
John Gartshore went on to become one of the leading Canadian
industralists of his age. His Dundas foundary is credited as
having been at that time a very important training centre
for journeymen and the most influential centre for the creation
of heavy industry in Ontario. He died in Glasgow in 1873
while on visit to his homeland 27.
Wholly constructed by his company in the late 1850s were
two huge pump engines each rated at 100 horsepower for
the water supply of the city Hamilton, which as early as
1853 had a population of 25,000 and in the year 2001 was
the third largest city in Ontario with 318,000. As originally
installed in
the Gartshore
Pump House the two engines combined were capable of
lifting 3,300,000 gallons a day from Lake Ontario. In
1983 the pumphouse was opened to the public as the
Hamilton
Museum of Steam and Technology. The engines are the
last surviving North American example of a mid-19th
Century waterworks the construction of which changed
the course of Hamilton's history and the lives of
generations of its residents. The waterworks was
officially opened in 1860 by the Prince of Wales during
the first royal tour of the Canadas 27.

William's Military History

William Moir
was a career soldier who on the 30 Mar 1831 at the age
of 19 years and 9 months enlisted as a private in the
Scots Fusilier Guards. Whilst in Guards he was promoted
to Corporal on 18 Jul 1834 and to Sergeant on 28 Dec 1838 4.
At 29 years years of age, after only nine years military
service, on 1 Nov 1840 he was appointed Sergeant-Major of
the 58th Rutlandshire Regiment of Foot - otherwise known
as the Old Black Cuffs, providing him with a
springboard for promotion to officer rank early in the
period the regiment was destined to spend in lands far
to the south of his Scottish homeland.
Until mid 1851 the
headquarters depot of the 58th was at Chatham in England.
The regiment was stationed in Australia from 1843 to 1847.
From 1844, with the exception of a 6 month period in
1846/47, the main body was stationed in New Zealand from
which it did not finally depart until November 1858. The
headquarters depot in New Zealand where William was stationed
during the thirteen years he served there with the regiment
was at Albert Barracks in Auckland. The construction of
Albert Barracks was commenced after the beginning of the
Hone Heke War in 1845, and by the early 1850s the approx.
14 hectare site was fully protected by a 12 feet high
loop-holed volcanic blue stone wall. Part of the Albert
Barracks site is now Albert Park.

The
regiment's pay and muster and records from April 1843
to Nov. 1859 are recorded on 12 reels of AJCP microfilm.
The intial pay list for the Chatham headquarters for the
quarter ended 30 June 1843 listed Sergeant-Major William
Moir as the regiment's senior non-commissioned officer.
The regiment then had an officer compliment of approximately
40 and a total strength of about 1100. There were 932
privates and 18 buglers, pipers and drummers 10.
The muster and pay records reveal William's journey to
the future, to be initially in Australia and thereafter
excepting the last four years of his life in New Zealand,
commenced with embarkation in England for New South Wales
on 14 May 1844 on the 594 tons barque Pestonjee Bomajee,
with a complement of the 58th regiment commanded by Major
Cyprian Bridge comprising the commanding officer's wife,
several officers, the doctor, plus 158 rank & file
and 46 soldiers from the 80th regiment, and 13 women and
17 children. The vessel arrived in Sydney Harbour on 28
Sept. 1844 after a 138 day passage and the troops
disembarked two days later 11,
12. William spent only six months
in NSW before embarking for New Zealand on 10 Apr 1845
on the bargue the Slains Castle. The vessel arrived
at Auckland on the 21 April and the regiment disbarked
the following day. On the 28th April the
corps left on the same transport
for the Bay of Islands to deal with the Maori tribes
led by the Chief Hone Heke and his principal allay Kawiti
who were in rebellion 7,13.
Because of a close
likeness it was thought William may have been the
Sergeant-Major who is the third from the left and
tallest in an undated photograph
purported to be of 58th regiment NCOs. However such
would appear not to be the case as it is understood the
tunic worn by those in the photo was not authorised for
use to replace the coatee as the dress uniform for the
rank and file until 1856, and William would not have
worn a Sergeant-Major's dress uniform after 30 March 1848.
William is mentioned is several times in the book
To Face the Daring Maoris, that is a history
of the First Maori War of 1845-1847 told through a
collection of diary entries of 58th Reg't soldiers 20.
He participated in all the major 1845 and 1846 actions
in the north of the North Island of New Zealand -
being the destruction on 30 Apr 1845 of Pomare's Pa,
the attack on Hone Heke's Pa at Puketutu on 8 May
1845, on the Kapotai Pa located up the Waikare River
on 16 May 1845, on the Heke Pa at Ohaeawai on 1 Jul
1845, and on the Kawiti Pa at Ruapekapeka on 11 Jan
1846. These actions are collectively known as the Hone
Heke War. For a selection of
contemporary drawings and paintings of the various
actions by 58th Reg't artists Major (later Colonel)
Cyprain Bridge (1807-1885) and Lance-Sergeant John
Williams (-1905) see paintings.
At the foot of that page will be found a link to
the official despatches, editorial comment etc.
published in the major newspaper of the day.
William
Moir's record of service stated at the 8th May 1845
assault on Hone Heke's Pa at Puketutu he
volunteered his services with the stormers 4, 31.
Following that action, which was the first in which
the 58th regiment had engaged an enemy in combat since
the 1813-14 Peninsular War, the commanding officer at
the assault Major Cyprian Bridge, when commenting in his
order on the steadiness and gallantry displayed, singled
out three for special mention : quote "the Induvidual
Bravery of Lieutenant and Adjutant M'Lerie, Sergeant-Major
Moir and Sergeant Brown". In this engagement the 58th
lost seven killed with seventeen wounded. The record
stated William was severely wounded at the assult on
Heke's Pa at Ohaeawai on 1st July 1845 4.
Hone Heke had retreated to Ohaeawai after abandoning
his Pa at Puketutu, but had left it and gone
into hiding to recover from a wound and the Pa
was commanded by his allay Kawiti. The assult commenced
at 3 p.m. Terrible losses were suffered by the stormers.
In an action lasting only 5 to 7 minutes a third were
either killed or wounded, giving rise to the action
being regarded as the N.Z. equivalent of the Crimean War
Charge of the Light Brigade. The diary of Corporal
John Mitchell (who later became a Captain in the Militia)
recorded: "The party was literally mown down. My nearest
comrades in the affray were Capt Grant & Sergt Major
Moir. We could see inside the Pah, but could not
reach the maories lying in the ditches. One of them a
big fellow I could just reach with the bayonet, but
could not use it with effect. He was intent on shooting
me. I called Capt Grant's attention to the fix I was
in, he shot the fellow with his pistol in the forehead.
He, Grant was killed almost immediately. At the same
time Sergt Major Moir called to me he was wounded. I
was also wounded above the left knee. We both retired,
the whole area was strewn with wounded and dead, a very
frightful sight." 20. The service record
stated William was quote: "Granted a medal and annuity
for meritorious service on 1st April 1846 when Serj.
Major of the 58th Regiment with the Commander in Chiefs
authority to wear the laurel of a Commissioned Officer".
Excepting for three companies who remained stationed
in the south of the North Island, late in 1846 the
headquarters and other companies of the 58th regiment
were withdrawn to NSW. They sailed from Auckland on the
Java on 6 Dec, arriving back in Sydney on 18th,
where they occupied the old quarters at Parramatta quit
some twenty months previously 20. As
it turned out their sojurn back in NSW was to last for
only six months. An escalation of trouble in the south
of the North Island in the Wanganui area in May 1847
resulted in their return to New Zealand. The muster and
pay lists for the quarter ended 31 Dec 1846 state
William Moir spent 19 of the 92 day period on board ship
and for the next March quarter was in Sydney for the full
period. The list for the quarter ended 30 Jun 1847
discloses on 12 Jun 1847 he departed Sydney for New
Zealand. Four months later on 15 Oct 1847 he was promoted
to the rank of Quarter Master 4. By this time
the Maori rebellion in New Zealand that had commenced
with the attack on Russell at the Bay of Island on 11
March 1845 was over and was to remain so until the fresh
outbreaks in the 1860s in which William Moir again
participated.
The muster
and pay records indicate his promotion to officer rank took full
effect from 30 Mar 1848 - quote: "being the date of the notification of
his appointment as Quarter Master" 14.
The rank of Quarter Master placed him in order in the muster and pay lists
immediately below the Adjutant which was a position usually filled by a
Ensign or Lieutenant. He was stationed in Auckland
where the 58th depot was situated. A letter
to the Secretary of War dated 13 Nov 1852, written by the Commanding Officer
of the regiment Lieutenant Colonel R. H. Wynyard, in support of his application
for a pay increase to which he had become entitled by his then five year
period of service as an officer, indicates from the formality of approval
the following year William's army pay was at the rate of eight shillings
and six pence a day which equates to £150 per annum. The quarterly
muster and pay records reveal he held the rank of Quarter Master for almost
eleven years until he "retired" effective 23 July 1858. His retirement
is recorded on the muster and pay list for the six months ended 31 Mar
1859 15. His replacement
was appointed just 12 days before the last of the 58th regiment soldiers
who had not taken a discharge in NZ embarked for England on 7 Nov 1858.
The muster and pay
lists reveal William ceased active duty effective from
1 Aug 1857 when he went "on leave" upon which he remained
until retirement. Whether the notation in the pay list that
he had "retired" effective from that date in 1858 meant he
was thereafter regarded as an officer on half-pay liable at
any time to be called up for active duty remains to be
determined. Such seems most likely, in which case he would
seemingly have retained that half-pay status for the balance
of his three score years and ten, excepting for a few years
in the 1860s during the Second Maori Wars when again on
full active army service in the N.Z. Militia - the forerunner
of New Zealand's Regular Army . Such
a scenario may explain his widow's application to the
Ministry of War in England for a pension after his death.
Under this scenario it would follow from the time of
appointment as Quarter Master in 1847 that records of his
address etc. would be held at the Public Records Office in
Kew, England. His details of service etc. should be found at
the PRO in several record series, amongst which would
likely be the army officer lists, foreign officers on half
pay lists, the Paymaster General series PMG 6 and the
paymaster's records of widows pensions. These records
have not been consulted by the compliler. William Moir
is not mentioned in a book titled Discharged in New Zealand by
Hugh Hughes which lists about 800 soldiers from British
regiments who took discharges in New Zealand during the
period 1840-1870 because the book does not cover those
who were officers or who were in the militia.
Following
his July 1858 retirement from active duty in the 58th
regiment he was appointed in
December that year by the Governor of New Zealand as a
Captain in the City Company of the Auckland Volunteers.
During the Second Maori War in the 1860s he served with
that rank in the First Waikato Regiment for which he
received a medal awarded in respect of his service
during the period 1861-66 16.
Captain William
Moir holds a unique place in
Australian Military History. The first formal involvement
of Australian soldiers in an overseas war was the force
of 750 men raised in 1885 for the war in the Sudan,
named the Infantry Regiment of the New South Wales
Contingent for Special Service in Egypt. Earlier a small
number of Australians served as volunteers in N.Z.
during the First Maori War in 1845/46 and similarly
some served in the mid 1850s in British regiments in
the Crimean War. However the Second Maori War in N.Z.
in the 1860s was distinctly the first war in which
Australians were involved as soldiers to any significant
extent. A total of 2400 enlisted in the New Zealand
Militia. They arrived in N.Z. from Australia on 23
chartered vessels between Sep 1863 and March 1864. The
distinction held by Capt. William Moir is that he commanded
the first detachment of the Australian recruits to engage
the Maori enemy. The occassion was on 13 Oct. 1863 at what
is known as the Battle of East Pukekohe Church.
The church was located within a stockade that came under
attack by the Maoris. In this engagement the detachment
under his command numbering 26, all being Australian
enlistees from the First Waikato Regiment of Military Settlers,
suffered one wounded shot in the knees and axed on
the head 30.
William Moir had been severely wounded in 1845 during the
First Maori War. Whether he was again wounded during the
second wars in the Waikato is not known. He may have
been, for in respect of his NZ miltary service his
Canadian nephew Lt. Col. Gartshore wrote in 1930 that
- "He served there for several years, retiring at length,
with the rank of Captain, because of a wound he had
received 29.

Mangawhai Years

From
1865/66 until 1875 the electoral roll
listed William Moir as the holder of 586 acres on the
Mangawhai River. He was no longer listed in the next
available roll for 1881. In the main this property was
comprised of the 380 acres located on the Rodney County
side of Mangawhai for which on 18 June 1859 he had been
the crown grantee. William's rank in the 58th would
likely have given him an entitlement to a substantial
land order when he retired thus explaining his acquisition
of this land before he again saw active service during
the Waikato Maori Wars. In respect of his active service
in those wars Mr. Johnsons Gazette quoted:
"As we approach Te Arai we passthe residence of Captain
Moir and Mr Griffen, both away at the front". The Gazette
reporter's approach to Te Arai must have been from the
north as the property named Kelvin Grove
was located about half way between Mangawhai and Te Arai.
It is assumed this reference would have been circa 1863/64.
The name of Captain Moir was on the gazetted list of
names of elected members of Mangawhai Highway
Board of 1870/71/72.
It is not
entirely clear if William Moir ever personally owned land
at Moirs Point located across the river from where
the wharfe was at the end of Moir Street, and where some
of his descendants owned and leased land and the
Christian Youth Camp was located (in 2000). In 1975
some remains of his old homestead could still be found
on the original Kelvin Grove property which it is
said was named after the last place he lived at before
leaving Scotl - perhaps the Glasgow suburb of that
name 8. In 1859 he built the first Mangawhai
Hotel of which Samuel Mooney was the first host. Mooney
held the first license in 1865 when the Licensing Act of
1863 came into force. By 1868 William Moir was the
licensee. The original hotel was destroyed by fire in
1861. Its replacement was sited exactly opposite at
the wharf end of Moir Street where in 2001 the tavern
was located 8.

The Moir family of Mangawhai are to be distinguished from
the Moirs' of Moirs Hill located in the Puhoi / Ahuroa
area. According to the book The Rock and the Sky
the brothers Alexander and Henry Moir arrived from
Queensferry, Scotland in 1859 on the Caduceus
and were crown grantees in June the same year of Lot 16
of 118 acres in Ahuroa. Alexander Moir never married.
His brother Henry was in the militia and married an
Eliza and they had three children - James who died in
1949, Henrietta, and Charlotte. Of the three only
Charlotte married. Thus their Moir surname did not
survive the second generation.
In the WW
I at least four of William and Sarah Ann Moir's
grandsons served. Of those David Robert Moir and
Gordon Moir were among the nine from New Zealand
with the Moir surname who did
not return.

SOURCES:1
NSW BDM Indexes – christened C of E, Christ Church,
Hexham/Newcastle – V1822 6174 1B
2
Headstone Te Arai Cemetery south of Mangawhai,
Northland, New Zealand.
3
NZ Death Certificate #1889-1101
4
Photocopy of original form titled:
Statement of the Services of Quarter Master W Moir of
the 58th regt. of Foot - with a record of such other
Particulars as may be useful in case of his Death.
Undated but likely ca. 1853 with copy retained by W. Moir.
It states he was married in Auckland 1847 by Rev. T. Buddle
a minister of the Wesleyan Church - image copy courtesy of
Orrin and Judith Brown of New Zealand. Marriage date of
18 Sept. 1847 from Moir family records provided by
Lynette Westcott of N.Z.
5
Microfiche - ESTATES 1866 to 1900 - "William Moir;
Toronto, Canada, died 1st December 1881, Captain in Army".
E/A filed 4th June 1902 - file numbers 1902/1456 and 1902/1225
6
1881 Ontario Vital Statistics #22219-81. From the
LDS Church microfilm of the records - death registrated
in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
7
Emails dated 12 & 25 Dec 2000 from Lynette Westcott of
New Zealand.
8The Rock & the Sky published in New Zealand (1975)
9
Letter dated 18 Dec 1882 from Sarah Ann Moir of Mangawhai
to Letitia Garmonsway, transcript courtesy of Jill Van Der
Reyden of New Zealand.
10
Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) microfilm reel #3826
covering volume 6743.
11The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 30 Sep. 1844.
12
AJCP microfilm reel #3827 - 58th Muster Rolls & Pay
Lists 1 Oct 1844 - 31 Dec 1844 - disembarked 30th Sept.
13Ibid for quarter ended 31 Jul 1845 -
embarkation for NZ date given as 10 Apr. 1845.
14Ibid reel #3829, for quarter ended 31
March 1848 p.213, p.p.165-166.
15Ibid, reel #3836, 6 months from 1 Oct 1858 -
31 Mar 1859 p. 88 - the 58th Regiment of Foot departed
NZ 19 Nov 1858 and arrived in England 6 Mar 1859
16The NZ Wars 1845 to 1866 (Medal Rolls of officers & men),
- William Moir, Captain, medal date 1861 to 1866
17Descendants of Alexander Moir, compiled genealogy
dated 25 May 2001- provided courtesy Sondra Jernigan
of the USA.
18
NZ BDM Indexes # 1863-57 reg. Mangawhai.
19Ibid #1863-49 reg. Mangawhai.
20
Michael Barthrop, To Face the Daring Maoris, (Hodder
& Stoughton, 1979), p. 20,36,73,186,95,103. Names
appearing in this book can be found indexed at this
webpage21
Change of address date - email advice dated 28 Feb. 2001
from Julie Fox of CA, USA, who obtained the Paymaster
General Pay Sheet record from the PRO.
22
Photograph held by Mangawhai Museum - image provided
courtesy of Lynnette Westcott, N.Z.
23Ibid - images provided courtesy of Orrin &
Judith Brown of N.Z.
24
Emails dated 19, 25, 31 May 2001 from Sondra Jernigan of
the USA.
25
Morgan, Henry James, The Canadian men and women of the
time: a handbook of Canadian biography, (Toronto : W.
Briggs, 1898) - p. 376.
26
G. Merce Adam, Prominent men of Canada: a collection
of persons distinguished in professional and political
life, and in the commerce and industry of Canada
(Toronto : Canadian Biographical Pub. Co., 1892.) p.p. 131-34.
27Hamilton's Old Pump House - webpage by William James,
Professor of Water Resources Eng., Uni. of Guelph, Ontario,
Canada: http://www.eos.uoguelph.ca/webfiles/james/homepage/Teaching/hww1.htm
28
Photographs courtesy of Sondra Jernigan of the USA.
29
William Moir Gartshore, Leaves from a Lifetime,
edited by Margaret Wade (A. Talbot & Co., Printers,
London, Ontario, Canada, privately published 1930). A
reproduction with an amendment to the Moir history by Sondra
Jernigan was printed in the 1990s. As at June 2001 copies
were still available from Sondra Jernigan.
30
Rev. Frank Glen, For Glory and a Farm, (Whakatane
District Historical Soc., N.Z. 1984)
31
The military term for the contingent of soldiers
comprising a storming party was "the forlorn hope".
The name referred to the fact that most of them were
either killed, wounded, or captured and only occassionly
came back. (from: the quide to locating British regiments
and their records titled, In Search of the Forlorn
Hope Vol. I, by John M. Kitzmiller (Manuscript
Publishing Foundation, Salt Lake City, Utah , 1988).
32
Artist: Lance-Sergeant John Williams (- 1905). Albert Barracks,
Auckland, N.Z., with Mount Eden in the distance, from an
original sketch by Major (later Colonel) Cyprian Bridge
(1807-1885), watercolour. Rex Nan Kivell Collection NK1271.
By permission of the National Library of Australia.

Special acknowledgement to Lynette
Westcott of NZ and Sondra Jernigan of the USA who made available
their research, compiled genealogies & photographs, and to
Judith Brown of NZ for family records, photographs & maps,
and Delwyn Andew & Anne Picketts of NZ for early assistance
in researching the family history. Without their help this page would
not have been possible.